As MMi reported last week, the Canadian smartphone maker was expected to launch the BBM messaging service on iOS and Android over the weekend.

But that didn't happen.

Initially, BBM was set to reach Android first on Saturday, September 21st. The following day was supposed to be the iPhone's turn to gain access to BBM. But BlackBerry was compelled to delay the announced launch.

The cross-platform Messenger chat applications will be delayed by at least a week, we're told.

What's behind the launch issue, you ask? Shortly before the official BBM for Android launch, a leaked version was distributed and it effectively upended the company's formal release schedule.

"This older version resulted in volumes of data traffic orders of magnitude higher than normal for each active user and impacted the system in abnormal ways," BlackBerry Messenger Executive Vice President Andrew Bocking stated publicly as the delay was confirmed.

"The version we were planning to release on Saturday addressed these issues, however we could not block users of the unreleased version if we went ahead with the launch," he added. "We attempted to address the problems caused by the unreleased version throughout the day on Saturday, but as active users of the unreleased app neared a million--and accelerated--it became clear that the only way to address the issue was to pause the rollout for both Android and iPhone."

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Hmm, i was thinking it had more to do with the news that they are being bought out. Maybe the purchaser doesn't want the app going out. Which is understandable as currently i don't see how a free app is going to net them any revenue.

Hmm, i was thinking it had more to do with the news that they are being bought out. Maybe the purchaser doesn't want the app going out. Which is understandable as currently i don't see how a free app is going to net them any revenue.

That was my first thought. Why would a privately held company essentially under new management who just spent $5 billion buying a dying company want any of their new Intellectual Property being given away for free???
How do they expect to make any profits if their only real asset was about to be given away for nothing. Are they a $5 billion charity???

Okay I'll explain the story again. Blackberry realized last Friday it would not meet the launch date. Therefore they leaked out a beta version and also make it work for a while so we'd believe it was indeed a leaked version. It all worked fine with no issues and then 12 or more hours later they pulled the plug. In the meantime iOS versions were also released in some countries. So then Blackberry used the excuse that the leaked version caused issues with the launch. If the leaked android version caused issues then why would they pull the iOS version? Plus if they seen the leaked version I'm sure they could have blocked it right away and not allow users to get a little addicted to it. If they came out and said "we are sorry we can't make the date" then that would make them look worse than they already do. So instead they come out and say due to the leaked version we will have to delay it. Again WTF does that have to do with the iOS version? This is my conspiracy theory but I'm sure others will buy Blackberry's excuse which is fine because this is America and we all are allowed to say what we think. Don't flame me for saying what I think I used the leaked Android version and I also have an iPhone and even though I probably won't use it much with whatsapp being so popular I do want to try it out for a while and if it ends up being better then so be it I'll encourage friends to switch over.

Well, I'll just stick to iMessage and/or SMS! God forbid, we just keep it simple! LOL!

People still own blackberrys? Isn't windows phone doing better than them now.... Pathetic that anyone would waste app space on their phone with this.... If your gonna choose BBM over a text, email, gchat, iMessage, whatsapp, and just about every other cross platform apps that can be used for texts... Your an idiot.... And soon we will send you to the moon